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	<title>DevInContext</title>
	<link>http://www.devincontext.com</link>
	<description>The Case For Personal Growth</description>
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		<title>MLK And Why I Write About Spirituality</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Surprisingly, through all the talk about MLK we've heard today, there's one aspect of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we aren't hearing that much about:  the fact that he was a Christian.
Yes, believe it or not, he had that "Dr." at the beginning of his name because he had a doctorate in theology.  Yes, he [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2011/01/mlk-and-why-i-write-about-spirituality/</link>
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		<title>Why Growth Is Good: New Free E-Book</title>
		<description><![CDATA[  
I'm pleased to introduce you to a collection of articles from this site that I've put together called "Why Growth Is Good:  The Case for Personal Growth, Self-Help and the 'New Age'," which is available here as a free e-book.  I've edited many of my posts together into longer essays, and I've also [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/12/why-growth-is-good-new-free-e-book/</link>
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		<title>Growth As An Opiate, Part 5: Self-Development And The &#8220;War On Envy&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
The idea that societies with more economic inequality -- whether in terms of income, net worth, or something else -- are less moral is nothing new.
In the past, people have usually made this argument from a philosophical perspective -- for instance, John Rawls' famous argument that, if you designed a society from scratch, with no [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/11/growth-as-an-opiate-part-5-self-development-and-the-war-on-envy/</link>
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		<title>The Circumcision Ban And The New Atheism</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
You've probably heard about a recent campaign in San Francisco, California to put a measure on the ballot banning circumcision.  I think this campaign illustrates some of the troubling assumptions people are increasingly making about spirituality in our culture, and I'm going to look at some of those assumptions in this post.
Lloyd Schofield, who started [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/11/the-circumcision-ban-and-the-new-atheism/</link>
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		<title>Rhonda Byrne&#8217;s The Power: Is The Packaging The Problem?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
A common reason people attack The Secret (and now, Rhonda Byrne's sequel, The Power) is that it promotes a self-centered and "consumerist" attitude.  Byrne, critics say, encourages us to focus on "manifesting" luxury cars, expensive shoes, and so on, rather than on helping others.
It's true that the Law of Attraction is often packaged as something we [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/11/rhonda-byrnes-the-power-is-the-packaging-the-problem/</link>
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		<title>Personal Development Politics, Part 2:  The Elections and Self-Responsibility</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
We've been looking at the argument, made by some personal growth critics (Salerno posted about this, for example), that self-development's emphasis on personal responsibility favors political conservatism.  If this is true, I've been asking, why do self-development teachers tend to be politically liberal?  Is it because they don't see the implications of their ideas?
Like I [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/11/personal-development-politics-part-2-the-elections-and-self-responsibility/</link>
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		<title>Rainbow Right-Wingers, and Other Myths About Personal Development Politics</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Reading Barbara Ehrenreich, you'd think people who are into personal development must be rabid right-wingers.  The common New Age notion that you can create happiness from within, she says, supports a conservative political line.
After all, she basically says, who needs welfare programs if poor people can just "think themselves happy"?  And the same goes for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/10/rainbow-right-wingers-and-other-myths-about-personal-development-politics/</link>
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		<title>NPR and the Social Stigma Around Psychotherapy</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Politics aficionados among you have probably heard about National Public Radio (NPR)'s firing of journalist Juan Williams, over his comment about the anxiety he feels getting on a plane with someone dressed in Muslim garb.
The controversy over Williams' firing didn't interest me as much as the comments by NPR's chief, Vivian Schiller, in the aftermath.  [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/10/npr-and-the-social-stigma-around-psychotherapy/</link>
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		<title>Regulating Self-Help, Part 2: What Is A Benefit?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Last time we saw that, if we wanted to determine whether, and how much, to regulate personal development, we'd need to weigh the costs of self-development activities against their benefits.
This, as I said, raises yet another question:  who is qualified to say whether someone benefited from a personal growth practice?  In other words, should we [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/10/regulating-self-help-part-2-what-is-a-benefit/</link>
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		<title>Regulating Self-Help, Part 1: Defining Some Terms</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
I expect that, once James Arthur Ray's manslaughter trial begins, calls to "regulate self-help" will become louder and more widespread.  Because there's a lull in media coverage of the Sedona incident, I think now is a good time to soberly consider some questions about whether and how the government could go about regulating personal development, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/10/regulating-self-help-part-1-defining-some-terms/</link>
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